


I Will Follow You Into the Dark

by chambers_none



Category: Disney Lab Rats
Genre: -Ish, Alternate Universe- Coffeeshop, F/M, M/M, WIP, i seem to write fic for non-existent fandoms, no actual incest sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 16:08:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chambers_none/pseuds/chambers_none
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adam finds Chase and Chase finds Adam, although none of them ever thought it'd be here, surrounded by cracked faux leather seats and rich coffee smells and posters of the Eiffel Tower.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Will Follow You Into the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Totally self-indulgent WIP bakery AU for a fandom that does not exist because stupid Disney show. Yes. First time ever writing them don't hate me (or judge, although I guess I can't be blamed for the latter.) Seriously, some characters don't even have last names and I've written a freaking bakery AU. What the actual fuck.

There's a soft _ding!_ as Bree steps into the bakery- it catches her by suprise, although there shouldn't be any reason why; most shops like this already have the stereotypical little golden bell hanging over the door. She half-smiles to herself as she looks up in pleasant suprise, startled. The door's a nice deep rich velvet colour, and it's so pretty, and she catches herself running a nail over the grain of the wood just before it whooshes shut. The bakery's empty, save a black boy sitting in the corner, firmly concentrated on his laptop, his eyes boring holes into the screen.

Her black flats have this wooden sole that taps louder in the front, and it sort of echoes when she walks across the bakery floor. The place is quiet and serene and Bree's in love with it already. There's no one at the counter, but she can hear someone bustling around back in the kitchen. It's smarter to decide what to order now, except. When Bree looks up at the menu (blackboard, typically, but it's sort of adorable and amusing, she's just in such a good mood today she doesn't know why) there's only a big _Hello!_ written in like, font size 20 maybe, in yellow chalk. The exclamation mark is in a burnt orange colour, however, and someone's drawn a flower with five petals and a smiley face. (The flower is pink, a light dusty colour that reminds her of the sunset.) 

"Hi," someone greets her, and her neck jerks back down to where a handsome boy with _muscles!_ and thick eyebrows smiles easily at her.

"Oh- um. Hi," she replies, stunned and just a little bit out of breath.

"Hi," and there's an annoying smirk beginning to form on his lips. Bree feels just a little bit pissed, now.

"Hi," she says this time, and her voice is laced with something condescending. Her eyes dart to the menu- or lack thereof. "Menu?"

This time, the boy grins wide, bottom lip caught under his teeth. "I'm Adam, and back there in the kitchen is Ethan, and we run this bakery. Tasha owns this cafe-bakery, but she's rarely here, but she still owns it, and. You don't really want to know- alright, anyway, we- uh, as an effort, to get to know our customers better and generally create a better enviroment, there is no menu. See, I am the menu- wait, no, that came out wrong-"

"Shut up, Adam, ask the girl what she wants!" a voice from the kitchen shouts, and Adam flushes.

"I'll- I'll have a mocha, if you have it," Bree cuts in before Adam can ask. "To go."

The boy in the kitchen- Ethan, she recalls- slips out just quickly enough to hand her drink to Adam, and Bree, she actually blushes- not even that prettily- under his half-curious, half-seductive green-eyed gaze- he looks at her from under his lashes, lip worried to a rose red, and Bree could swoon. She could.

"That'll be a dollar ninety," Adam informs her, and she hands over the exact cash.

She'll be bringing Chase along the next time, that's for sure.

 

-

 

"You're ridiculous."

"You're you. That statement is invalid."

Chase leans back in his beanbag (green, because the blue one is more of a turquoise, really, and turquoise is such a pretty colour, so of course it's hers), groaning. "You are not setting me up."

"But he is cute! And he looks gay!"

Chase sits up in his beanbag, as straight as one possibly can in a chair that swallows you. Head in hands, fingers running through his hair. Then he sighs and looks up at her. "Bree. We've been through this before. Just because someone looks gay, doesn't mean they are actually gay."

She purses her lips, crossing her arms before laying eagle-spread on her bed. "Fine. But you have to come with me to the bakery still. Even if he's not gay, they make fantastic coffee."

Chase makes a derisive snort, then gives her a particularly rude hand gesture he thinks she can't see as he walks out of her bedroom.

"I saw that!"

 

-

 

Today is a fine day. So fine, in fact, that Bree thinks it the perfect fine day to visit a certain coffeeshop- dressed up to the nines, and dragging her younger brother along, of course.

Chase is not amused.

He understands, really- well, he tries anyway. He loves Bree, but if her descriptions of the barista is true, he does not stand a chance. Not at all. Hot older guy who's probably soul-deep and smells like coffee? Uh, not at all.

Chase watches as Bree fixes herself, peering into her reflection of some shop window just a street down from the cafe/bakery. He's not actually sure which is it- bakery or cafe. Eitherway he's prepared a couple extra dollars, just in case they really do have fantastic baked goods, because he's not going to put much stock in Bree's hormones.

"How do I look?" his sister does a little twirl, grinning wide. The cherry colour of her lips look a bit horrifying, when stretched out like that. He keeps silent, instead resorting to sarcasm.

"Fine, just like you looked fine the shop window before, and the restaurant bathroom mirror before, and at home. Can we please, just, go to the cafe now? And not stop anymore along the way?"

"You, brother dearest, obviously do not understand the importance of looking good," Bree says this in the most pretentious tone she can muster up while all along sticking her upper lip out. At the end of her statement, she huffs, tosses her hair over her shoulder, and marches to the shop. Chase gives up.

 

-

 

Chase tries not to show his wincing at the door bell when it dings as they step through the door. He's gay, yeah, but he's not actually some internalized oppressed fashion designer with a flair for birds and nature and whatever it is stereotypical gays are portrayed as in movies. Sticking his hands resolutely in pockets, he tries not to seem like he's hiding behind Bree and her mega-watt smile at the barista.  
Who is, in fact, kind of.. hot.

He's got thick eyebrows and really red lips, the kind that looked like they've been thoroughly kissed two minutes previously, and gorgeous hair that Chase wants to run his fingers through, and biceps, and. He is so out of his league. He is so leaving. Hopefully he won't even be noticed.

"Hi Adam!" 

Bree is a gnat. A cheery annoying gnat with the voice pitch of a.. a... Chase doesn't actually know what sounds so high-pitched and tinny, but he'll make a mental note to find out later. Right now he just kind of wants to push Bree over and run out of the door. 

"Hey, I- I don't know your name?" the boy sounds sorry, and confused, and adorable, and Chase wants to hit himself for thinking the boy adorable.

"It's Bree," Bree beams, before he's even finished. "And this is my little brother Chase. Say hi, Chase!" She pushes him forward, and Chase stumbles. His older sister sounds way too perky for this. She is going to pay.

"Hi," he greets, looking at the floor. There's a stain by his shoes.

He doesn't look up at Adam's choked greeting- not choked, exactly, but he sounds funny. He figures, if he can stare at the toecaps of his Chucks long enough, the barista will forget he's even there, Bree can nab her boy, and get coffee, and they can be off. He won't even have to return here again.

"So, um, what'll you be having?" Chase automatically looks up to the menu, and sees that Adam's neck is flushed red. He looks sort of guilty, almost. The menu has a big Hello! written on it, and a bee. Oh. Well then. He's screwed, just like he's screwed at the post office when he has to deliver a package for his dad overseas and has no idea which counter to go to. Or screwed screwed, like when he's been staring at the back of a Jack Brewer's head in school and the teacher calls on him, and everybody turns around to look at him look at a boy. Chase hates, absolutely hates, being caught on the spot like this. He's rubbish at spontaneous, at not knowing what to do. (He doesn't even know why he stares at Jack Brewer's hair. I mean, he's got great hair, yeah, but that's about it. Besides, everyone knows that he has a mad crush on Kim Crawford anyway. The world would be easier if everyone were bisexual, he thinks sadly. Or pansexual. Whatever.)

"Mocha," Bree chirps, actually chirps, and Chase's neck nearly gets a whiplash when he snaps back down to her. Is she serious?

"Uh- yeah, what she's having," he mutters, after recovering from his shock. Honestly. If Bree's got the hots for Adam, he doesn't see why he's being set up with him.

Until- "Oi, jerkface, 2 mochas!" "I heard that, you dick!"- comes from in the back, presumably where the kitchen is. It takes a herculean effort for Chase to wipe the smirk off his face.

Of course, he can't help being curious and asking questions, because what is he if not a concerned, protective younger brother to his older sister? "So, kitchen boy, eh?" He nudges Bree as they walk to a table, can't help the grin that's creeping into his voice, because, what the heck. Bree wouldn't dare embarassing herself in front of her potential boyfriend.

(Secretly, Chase's relieved. This means Adam is all-clear; not his, probably never will be, but it's good to know that your sister won't betray you.) 

Bree turns a mottling shade of red. It's kind of worrying. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," she says, panicked, rushed.

Chase rolls his eyes. "Sure you don't."

 

-  
The thing is, Bree can be cool, sure she can. Only it's disarming when she makes to sit down and Ethan with green eyes, green eyes Ethan ducks out of the kitchen with two drinks, one in each hand, and she sort of. Falls.

(Later Chase will hold that over her, claiming she knocked over a table and landed splat on his runty little body and made him fall too. Whatever. He's her younger brother, he's obviously exaggerating as younger brothers are wont to do.)

Adam brings their drinks to their table, and makes Chase's eyes widen and his face redden when he sits down with them. He plops down their drinks, determinedly not looking at Chase, and Bree feels herself smile.

"Hi."

"Hi," she can't stop grinning.

"Business is slow," he gestures around. "Mind if I sit?"

"You're already sitting," Chase blurts out, and the two of them look at Chase.

"Um," he gulps, and swallows the still-hot drink so fast he burns his tongue. Then proceeds to flail. "Ow!"

"Genius," Bree tells him, and he shrinks back in himself.

"So, Adam, tell me about yourself."

 

-

 

Adam feels like he's being interrogated ("Where do you go to?" "Amity Groves High." "How old are you?" "Seventeen." "What hobbies do you have?" "I, uh-" "When did you start working here? Who told you about this job?" and on and on and on). He doesn't even get why- Bree is clearly interested in Ethan, and Chase isn't gay or like, interested in him, or anything.

The truth is, Adam already knows Chase. He's got a tiny crush on him- they don't go to the same school, but he's seen Chase walking home from Mission Creek High. It's stupid, really- he'd been walking home after his Photography meeting ended late, and he had seen the other boy walk the opposite way with a bizzare red-haired kid that played some sort of Warlocks and Dungeons game in medieval dress in a park near his house. Adam hadn't known his name then, or who he even was- but Chase, he now knows, had had his hands in his pockets, eyes clearly fixated on the cement before him while the red-haired kid gestured wildly about, and just as he had been staring at this boy whom he probably wouldn't have bothered with otherwise, Chase had looked up and seen him, and then his expression- god, he had looked so unsure and insecure, like a deer caught in headlights, the whole shebang. His lips peeled back, brow knitted, his face an epitome of worry, like Adam would have beaten him up just because Chase was looking back at him a beat longer than normal. And Adam had just wanted to hold him in his arms- it was ridiculous, because he's seventeen, and like, still a guy, he shouldn't be having this kind of urges- but all he did was look away quickly, watching Chase look at his shoes once again out of the corner of his eye.

Ever since then, he'd kind of- well, not stalked exactly, but- just kind of kept an eye out for him, really. He knew the then nameless boy was on a plethora of academics groups (that kind of intimidated him- at best, he was a C student); that he had an older sister he occasionally walked home with (he hadn't memorized Bree's face or anything, though- Chase coming into the shop was a huge suprise) and that he really, really liked going to the library. He liked books- lots of science-y ones, none of that literature nonsense. Adam liked that. 

He thinks all this while Bree shoots him query after query, and then finally when she needs to catch her breath, there's an uncomfortably awkward silence. Sure, it wasn't much of a conversation, but at least it was... something. Adam shifts uncomfortably in his seat, and his breath catches when his thigh brushes Chase's.

Chase sits up rigidly at that, spine ramrod straight, his face reddening. He coughs into his hand, lowering his face so that his fringe flops into his eyes and obscures his vision, then hunches his shoulders. Adam has the worst thought- what if Chase not only wasn't gay, or bi, or whatever- what if he was homophobic? So homophobic that a simple press of their legs together would cause him to hate Adam's guts?  
Of course, if Ethan could hear his inner monologue, he'd point out that a guy like that isn't even worth making friends with at all, but screw Ethan. Chase is perfect. He thinks.

 

-

 

They leave after that- Chase begging Bree with his eyes; he even sends her a text promising taking over the responsibility of doing the dishes (apparently it ruins her nails, or something) because their dad isn't fond of the dishwasher after a particularly hilarious-but-not-at-the-time incident. Bree acquiesces, but with a soft sigh and her lips pursed. They spend the rest of the day at the mall, Chase trudging behind her as Bree goes through Macy's and Forever 21 and then the supermarket, because dad's just texted the pair of them that he'd be out.

 

-

 

They don't mention their little jaunt to the cafe until a week later, when they're supposed to be studying- which, really, is Chase poring over both their assignments which are all spread out over the study table and Bree lounging on his bed like a royal cat, scrolling on Facebook and eating an apple. 

"You know, one day, I'll die, and you'd have to do your homework yourself," Chase informs her, and Bree hisses at him, like really hisses at him. He doesn't mind much, though- it's good to know his material, and he's helping his sister-ish, and they're really close for siblings, but whatever. Nobody makes fun of that (he thinks).

Then suddenly Bree nosedives into another, totally irrelevant topic. "What do you think of Adam?"

The lead of his #2 pencil breaks- not that that's any sign of his irrepressible surge of emotions, or anything, this pencil's always been a bit brittle. He leans back in his chair, tries not to bite the inside of his cheek. "Uh- yeah, he's. Okay, I guess."

Bree raises her eyebrows interestedly, leaning forward in mock rapt attention. "Well. Guess who I just found on Facebook, then."

Chase nearly falls off his chair.

Bree smirks at him as he rushes forward, no pretenses now, and she shoves her laptop into his lap. A picture of Adam grinning in front of the Statue of Liberty proudly is emblazoned across the screen. Chase feels his gut clench, has to physically refrain from running his hands all over the screen.

"So he's only, okay, hmm?" Bree leers at him. Chase pushes her off the bed.

 

-

 

Ethan is going to kill Adam for this.

"Hi, I'm covering for Adam today, what will you be having?"

Bree looks at him, her face blank. Ethan has an entire nanosecond's worth of ranting and arguing at Adam in his head before Bree stutters out her usual order. He wants to explain to her, that, really, he isn't a creep or anything, he's just- covering, for Adam, because he's too much of a meddler and far too nosy to keep out of other's people's business.

Ethan briskly makes her drink, then slides it over the counter to her. Her thumbnail brushes faintly over his knuckle and he jerks, flushing. He's such a weird fucker, how did he even make it this long? Ethan's not entirely sure, but he thinks he gapes at her for a second or two, mouth open. He watches her eyes widen and her scuttle to a table in the back, next to Leo.


End file.
